{"id":140198,"date":"2025-02-17T02:42:16","date_gmt":"2025-02-17T08:42:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=140198"},"modified":"2025-07-07T11:58:39","modified_gmt":"2025-07-07T16:58:39","slug":"young-male-northern-harrier-lifting-off","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2025\/02\/17\/young-male-northern-harrier-lifting-off\/","title":{"rendered":"Young Male Northern Harrier Lifting Off"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I honestly don\u2019t know why I\u2019ve never shared this photo of a young male Northern Harrier lifting off from the ground at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/utah\/farmington-bay-wma\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Farmington Bay WMA<\/span><\/a> in Utah until now.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"lazyload aligncenter wp-image-140195 size-full\" title=\"Young male Northern Harrier lifting off from the ground\" src=\"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/northern-harrier-immature-male-in-flight-mia-mcpherson-3399.jpg\" data-orig-src=\"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/northern-harrier-immature-male-in-flight-mia-mcpherson-3399.jpg\" alt=\"Young male Northern Harrier lifting off from the ground, Farmington Bay WMA, Davis County, Utah\" width=\"900\" height=\"643\" srcset=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns%3D%27http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg%27%20width%3D%27900%27%20height%3D%27643%27%20viewBox%3D%270%200%20900%20643%27%3E%3Crect%20width%3D%27900%27%20height%3D%27643%27%20fill-opacity%3D%220%22%2F%3E%3C%2Fsvg%3E\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/northern-harrier-immature-male-in-flight-mia-mcpherson-3399-200x143.jpg 200w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/northern-harrier-immature-male-in-flight-mia-mcpherson-3399-250x179.jpg 250w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/northern-harrier-immature-male-in-flight-mia-mcpherson-3399-300x214.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/northern-harrier-immature-male-in-flight-mia-mcpherson-3399-400x286.jpg 400w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/northern-harrier-immature-male-in-flight-mia-mcpherson-3399-600x429.jpg 600w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/northern-harrier-immature-male-in-flight-mia-mcpherson-3399-768x549.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/northern-harrier-immature-male-in-flight-mia-mcpherson-3399-800x572.jpg 800w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/northern-harrier-immature-male-in-flight-mia-mcpherson-3399.jpg 900w\" data-sizes=\"auto\" data-orig-sizes=\"(max-width: 900px) 100vw, 900px\" \/><span style=\"color: #808080;\">Young male Northern Harrier lifting off from the ground \u2013 Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/3200, ISO 320, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light, not baited<\/span><\/p>\n<p>The first-winter harrier gave me a terrific, dynamic pose as it lifted off from the snow-covered ground. I had great eye contact with the bird, and the light was beautiful. In some respects, it\u2019s a dream shot, and I enjoy looking at this image.<\/p>\n<p>Maybe I was swamped with a project, racing to meet a deadline, or just worn out from the nonstop news about a pandemic on the horizon that had us all on edge. Maybe I got interrupted after editing this photo that day, and it slipped my mind. I don\u2019t know for sure.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>What I do know for sure?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Is that it does not bother me that today I am sharing a Northern Harrier photo I took five years and one month ago. It&#8217;s still a compelling Northern Harrier image.<\/p>\n<p>Besides, I&#8217;d share photos even older than that, and I have, if I felt like they met my standards. Sometimes, even if they don&#8217;t, if they fit into what I&#8217;m writing about.<\/p>\n<p>I have to admit, I wish I weren\u2019t having trouble getting high-quality <a href=\"https:\/\/www.allaboutbirds.org\/guide\/Northern_Harrier\/overview\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Northern Harrier<\/span><\/a> photos right now. Here, they just seem to stay out of my reach. I hope that changes because I adore photographing these raptors.<\/p>\n<p>This week looks like the weather could get nasty starting Tuesday, so I may be pulling more photos from the past and sharing them here. That\u2019s not a bad thing. At all.<\/p>\n<p>Life <em>is<\/em> good.<\/p>\n<p>Mia<\/p>\n<p>Click <a href=\"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/northern-harrier-images\/\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">here<\/span><\/a> to view more of my Northern Harrier photos plus facts and information about this species.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I honestly don\u2019t know why I\u2019ve never shared this photo of a young male Northern Harrier lifting off from the ground at Farmington Bay WMA in Utah until now.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":140195,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27,1022,697,348,26],"tags":[2663,765,2450,4052,4122,5943,2783,3164,4067,4944,4062,4094,767,4006,153,4050,4328,5428,4095,373,4193],"class_list":["post-140198","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-avian","category-davis-county-utah","category-farmington-bay-wma","category-northern-harriers","category-utah","tag-birds-of-prey","tag-circus-hudsonius","tag-first-winter","tag-flight","tag-flying","tag-ground","tag-harrier","tag-harriers","tag-immature","tag-lifting-off","tag-male","tag-marsh","tag-marsh-hawk","tag-northern-harrier","tag-raptors","tag-snow","tag-snowy","tag-taking-off","tag-wetlands","tag-winter","tag-young"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/northern-harrier-immature-male-in-flight-mia-mcpherson-3399.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-Atg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":118614,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2023\/11\/29\/frosty-northern-harrier-in-utah\/","url_meta":{"origin":140198,"position":0},"title":"Frosty Northern Harrier In Utah","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"November 29, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"This photo of a frosty Northern Harrier was taken almost five years ago. Although the harrier is small in the frame, I still find the image visually appealing.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Birds&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Frosty Northern Harrier on the ground, Farmington Bay WMA, Davis County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/northern-harrier-immature-male-on-ground-mia-mcpherson-2196.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/northern-harrier-immature-male-on-ground-mia-mcpherson-2196.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/northern-harrier-immature-male-on-ground-mia-mcpherson-2196.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/northern-harrier-immature-male-on-ground-mia-mcpherson-2196.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":35588,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2016\/02\/15\/a-juvenile-female-northern-harrier-in-a-field-of-snow\/","url_meta":{"origin":140198,"position":1},"title":"Juvenile Female Northern Harrier In A Field Of Snow","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"February 15, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"At the end of January there was a nice, clear morning at Farmington Bay WMA and I spotted a juvenile female Northern Harrier in a field of snow next to the road who was a cooperative subject.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Birds&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Juvenile female Northern Harrier lifting off from a snowy field, Farmington Bay WMA, Davis County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/northern-harrier-snow-mia-mcpherson-9582.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/northern-harrier-snow-mia-mcpherson-9582.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/northern-harrier-snow-mia-mcpherson-9582.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/northern-harrier-snow-mia-mcpherson-9582.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":119320,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2023\/12\/25\/christmas-day-young-northern-harrier-on-the-wing\/","url_meta":{"origin":140198,"position":2},"title":"Christmas Day Young Northern Harrier On The Wing","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"December 25, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"On this Christmas morning, I am sharing a photo of a young female Northern Harrier in flight that I took exactly three years ago at Farmington Bay WMA.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Birds&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Christmas Day young Northern Harrier, Farmington Bay WMA, Davis County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/northern-harrier-hatch-year-female-flight-mia-mcpherson-2819.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/northern-harrier-hatch-year-female-flight-mia-mcpherson-2819.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/northern-harrier-hatch-year-female-flight-mia-mcpherson-2819.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/northern-harrier-hatch-year-female-flight-mia-mcpherson-2819.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":20298,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2015\/02\/20\/northern-harriers-on-the-wing\/","url_meta":{"origin":140198,"position":3},"title":"Northern Harriers On The Wing","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"February 20, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Male Northern Harriers, also called Gray Ghosts, are especially delightful to my eye when their plumage contrasts with soft bluebird skies that have just a touch of habitat in them","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Davis County&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Davis County","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/utah\/davis-county-utah\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Male Northern Harrier with the Wasatch Range in the background, photographed from Farmington Bay, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/northern-harrier-flight-mia-mcpherson-0622.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/northern-harrier-flight-mia-mcpherson-0622.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/northern-harrier-flight-mia-mcpherson-0622.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/northern-harrier-flight-mia-mcpherson-0622.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":118923,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2023\/12\/12\/immature-female-northern-harrier\/","url_meta":{"origin":140198,"position":4},"title":"Immature Female Northern Harrier","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"December 12, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Today I am sharing three photos of an immature female Northern Harrier that I took ten years ago at Farmington Bay WMA.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Birds&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Immature female Northern Harrier scanning the marsh while in flight, Farmington Bay WMA, Davis County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/northern-harrier-immature-female-winter-mia-mcpherson-9180.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/northern-harrier-immature-female-winter-mia-mcpherson-9180.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/northern-harrier-immature-female-winter-mia-mcpherson-9180.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/northern-harrier-immature-female-winter-mia-mcpherson-9180.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":34455,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2015\/12\/24\/a-juvenile-northern-harrier-in-flight-over-farmington-bay\/","url_meta":{"origin":140198,"position":5},"title":"Juvenile Northern Harrier In Flight Over Farmington Bay","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"December 24, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"I was able to take a few frames of this juvenile Northern Harrier in flight as it flew over some open water.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Birds&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Juvenile Northern Harrier in flight over Farmington Bay WMA in Davis County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/northern-harrier-juvenile-flight-mia-mcpherson-9896.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/northern-harrier-juvenile-flight-mia-mcpherson-9896.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/northern-harrier-juvenile-flight-mia-mcpherson-9896.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140198","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=140198"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140198\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/140195"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=140198"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=140198"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=140198"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}